Di Resta equalled the best qualifying performance of his career by getting ahead of the likes of Mark Webber and Romain Grosjean while both Mercedes didn't run in Q3. Having looked strong throughout the weekend so far, di Resta believes Force India has the upper hand over Mercedes and is now starting to show that it can be competitive on all types of track.

"Anything can happen, but we've put ourselves in to a good position to score some points," di Resta said. "We have been a bit stronger than Mercedes this weekend in general up until now - whether that will carry on is another thing - but they've chosen not to run. I think we've got a good enough car to stay in front of them.

"We should have probably been about this in Valencia if I hadn't made the mistake in Q3. This track's very similar; it's obviously evident it's carried over how it suits these places. Hopefully we can carry that in to tomorrow but it's nice to have gone from a medium downforce track to a low downforce track to a high downforce track and we've been relatively there."

With both Mercedes deciding not to set a lap time Di Resta also confirmed it was never in Force India's mind not to run in Q3 because it was so competitive.

"We were a tenth off P5 in Q2 so if I could do a better lap - and we were relatively confident that we could - it would make a difference. I think we were P8 in Q2 and P6 in Q3 and we were in front of the Mercedes at that point so that didn't really change anything.

"Grid position is probably quite a big key here. Given it's a street track overtaking is obviously difficult and getting out the way of the mess of the first lap's obviously key and the midfield is where most of that is."